Heavy rain continues to fall across Japan. The risk of further floods and mudslides is high, as downpours have loosened the ground and damaged dikes in some areas.
Weather officials say an active rain front and a low pressure system extending over the Sea of Japan are destabilizing atmospheric conditions from the western part of the country to the northeast.
The prefectural government of Okinawa, southern Japan, says it has received reports of 61 cases of coronavirus infection that have been confirmed among people connected to the US military.
Thirty-eight were at the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Station, and 23 at Camp Hansen.
A national facility devoted to the indigenous Ainu people and their culture opens on Sunday in their ancestral region of Hokkaido in northern Japan.
The National Ainu Museum and Park in Shiraoi has a museum, a hall for the performance of traditional Ainu dance and instrumental music, as well as a reconstructed Ainu village.
Heavy rain continues to fall intermittently in Gifu and Nagano Prefectures, central Japan, and in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan. The earth had been loosened and dikes had been damaged in some areas, raising the risks of further floods and mudslides.
Weather officials say an active rain front and a low pressure system extending over the Sea of Japan are destabilizing atmospheric conditions from western Japan to the Tohoku region in northeastern Japan and causing rain clouds to develop.
The recent spell of heavy rain in Japan has caused damage to more than 12,000 homes in the southwestern region of Kyushu and elsewhere.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency says a total of 12,610 houses in 19 prefectures had sustained damage, as of 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Sources at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government say 206 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in the Japanese capital on Saturday.
This is the first time that the daily count of newly identified cases in Tokyo has topped 200 for three straight days. The figure was 243 on Friday and 224 on Thursday.
The land ministry says more than 280 mudslides caused by heavy rain have been reported in over half of the country's 47 prefectures.
A total of 282 mudslides had occurred in 27 prefectures by noon on Saturday, including 52 in Kumamoto Prefecture and 44 in Kagoshima Prefecture, both in the southern Kyushu region, and 23 in Nagano Prefecture in central Japan.
Officials in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, have decided to request bars that have not taken sufficient preventive measures against the coronavirus to close.
Fifty-three people were found to have been infected at four host and hostess bars in the prefecture.
The father of a Japanese man who was abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and returned to Japan decades later has died.
Informed sources say Chimura Tamotsu died on Friday at the age of 93 at a hospital in the city of Obama in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan.
Heavy rain continues to pound parts of Kyushu in Japan's southwest and elsewhere, prompting landslide warnings for Kumamoto, Saga, Oita, Miyazaki, Tokushima, Gifu and Akita prefectures. Weather officials are also urging people to be prepared for flooding.
The Meteorological Agency says a slow-moving front over Japan has combined with a low pressure system to create unstable atmospheric conditions over much of the country.
The operator of Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea has removed 12 events and programs from its calendar through March. The cancellations include key Halloween and Christmas events at the two amusement parks.
Oriental Land said a prolonged period of shutdown due to the coronavirus has made it difficult to prepare. The parks, located just outside Tokyo, reopened on July 1 for the first time in about four months.
Japan's agricultural ministry has warned of devastating damage to the farming, forestry and fisheries industries due to ongoing torrential downpours.
The ministry says as of 11 p.m. on Friday, damage has been confirmed in 30 prefectures. They include Kumamoto and Kagoshima in the southwestern Kyushu region, which has been hit particularly hard by the extreme weather.
Japan's health authorities reported 413 new cases of the coronavirus on Friday. It's the first time since April 24 for the daily tally to exceed 400.
243 of the new cases were reported in the nation's capital, Tokyo. Neighboring Kanagawa prefecture reported 32 cases.
Nishimura Yasutoshi, Japan's minister in charge of the country's response to the coronavirus, and Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko have reaffirmed the need for more testing in the capital.
They also plan to continue easing restrictions on socio-economic activities in stages, despite a surge in cases in parts of the country, most notably Tokyo.